Third Cable Cut

[pepsified thinker]

I don't imagine there's much point in such an 'old school' means, but the U.S. apparently had a nice, secret--or little-known--means of listening in on Soviet communications via a submarine with a special attachment or something, on the undersea cable between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.

If I'm remembering correctly, that allowed catching theSoviety embassey's--or a West coast office of?--messages to Moscow in a form that was less shielded/coded.

But seems like someone on BOTH/all sides involved would have thought of that a long time ago--and a 4 cable-cut in so short a time is not the way one would go about sneakily setting up such an operation.

[StarmanSkye]

Along the lines of worst-case paranoid thinking: IF there's nothing going on currently to warrant a deliberate cutting of critical Middle East, or specif. Iranian, communications, mebbe this latest series of cable cutting 'accidents' is just a running proof-of-concept trial run, in order to cover all bases for when the west/Europe/whoever needs to interupt data and information/news communication? I'm just cynical and suspicious enough to not rule it out -- as was remarked upon, 4 accidents in one week is a BIT over-the-top for coincidence ...

As far as addressing the 'security' issue of terrorism, it should go without saying that the best 'solution (tho certainly not the PTB's preferred choice, for certain lucrative reasons) would simply be to apply the rule of law equitably and fairly to all, using the best principles of arbitration, diplomacy and good government to resolve all conflict issues so the best outcome is made possible. Remove injustice and institutionalized crime, provide people with the basics of living needs, security, justice and realizable goals, and the scourge of terrorism would disappear -- or at least the root causes/motivation for it. Unfortunately, the worst terrorists today are the world's biggest nation-states, since they have access to truly incredible, vast resources as well as the color of law by which to commit violence as a way to influence political decisions.

[8bitagent]

Did anyone see Die Hard 4 last year, where cyberterrorists within the US government brought the countries infrastructure down to its knees?

I wouldnt be surprised at all if a scenario like that played out in the US

[slow_dazzle]

Flag Telecom told The Register that ships were anchored in an unusual location off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt, and a ship's anchor cut into the cable.

link

There might be simple reasons for this but the number of cables damaged around the same time is suspicious. I managed to get onto the Tehran News website though, which is hosted on a server based in Tehran.

The article I looked up was about the launch of the Iranian oil bourse which is scheduled for around now AFAIK. Iran has said it would launch the bourse several times in the past but it has never materialised. I wonder if this time Iran is serious about it. Given the current oil price problems and the economic mess we are in right now there might be a relationship between damaging the www infrastructure over there and the potential threat posed by the bourse. I'm guessing like everyone else although the damage caused is very suspicious given the number of cable cuts and the fact that ships were anchored in unusual locations (see above) Maritime charts would show the position of undersea cables.

Then look at the current diplomatic activity. Rice is visiting the UK to discuss Iran and Afghanistan next week

It seems that there is a divergence of views on how to tackle the situation:

Germany's defence ministry said on Thursday the United States had written a strongly worded letter to Germany and other NATO members urging them to send combat troops to dangerous areas in southern Afghanistan.

But on Friday, Germany said there were no plans to change its deployment from the less violent north of the country.

Another key topic during Rice's London visit will be Iran. Last week, Rice and ministers from the other four permanent members of the U.N. Security Council as well as Germany agreed on elements of a new draft sanctions resolution against Iran.

The resolution, which is weaker than the United States would have wanted because of opposition from Russia and China, is being circulated at the United Nations in New York. It is unclear when there will be a vote.

I'm fully aware of the possibility that there might be mundane explanations for the cable cuts. However, the oil supply is short, our economies are on the verge of coming apart at the seams and Iran might just be about to move to an oil bourse which could push us over the edge. I don't know but this is worrying.

I'm going to stick my head above the parapet. I think there are moves to get the Bush/Cheney cabal out and replace it with one more aligned to the Brezinski school of control. We might be seeing a last ditch effort by Bush et al to push their strategy through before Obama is elected. He is apparently talking about negotiating with Iran (no link to hand) My guess is he will be elected and that will change the strategy in ways that the Bush/Cheney cabal don't like.

Although there might be other reasons for the number of cable cuts so close to one another and at the same time, something is a tad suspicious here. Factor in the divisions that seem to be opening up between countries such as Germany, China and Russia as well as Rice visiting the UK next week, and there is good reason to believe something is going on behind the scenes. If Obama is likely to try negoatiating with Iran, the messages sent out by Russia, China and Germany might be clear signals of support for regime change in the US. The ongoing US election campaign is yet another reason to suspect there is a falling out amongst the ruling cabals, and this might be what we are seeing glimpses of at present.

[bks]

the same site (internettrafficreport.com) that people are using as the source for the claim that Iran having no internet service shows Florida not having any over the same period of time, either.

Does anyone have any actual evidence that Internet service to Iran has been interrupted?

[StarmanSkye]

The recent article reposted below by Paul Joseph Watson on Global Research (though reprinted from Prison Planet), ordinarily a pretty accurate and reliable source for political, economic and parapolitical information, affirms the Iranian Blackout and other related details re: the suspicious cable cuts -- though again, the primary source cited is InternetTraffic.com. (And apparently Ahminejad's blog is still up-and-running.) Watson speculates there may be a political/military motive behind these 'accidents' that suggests something big may be in the works or immanent. More food fer thought, ennyway. I sure don't doubt the US's willingness to disrupt telecommunications in pursuit of its geopolitical, imperialist and neoliberal agenda -- tho it would be among the first to complain if such a thing were done to it or one of its situational allies. Double standards and all that -- a familiar theme. The mystery about what's really up, if anything, deepens ...
*****

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... a&aid=7976

Middle East Internet Blackouts Spur Geopolitical Suspicions
by Paul Joseph Watson

Global Research, February 2, 2008
Prison Planet - 2008-02-01

Unprecedented mass Internet outages throughout the Middle East and Asia after no less than four undersea Internet cables were cut without explanation are spurring suspicions that a major event of geopolitical proportions may be just around the corner.

Internet blackouts are impacting large tracts of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa after four undersea cable connections were severed. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Pakistan and India, are all experiencing severe problems.

According to InternetTraffic.com, Iran has been completely cut off from the Internet, though Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s blog can still be accessed.

Most notably, Israel and Iraq are unaffected by the outage.

"Stephan Beckert, an analyst with TeleGeography, a research company that consults on global Internet issues, said the damaged cables collectively account for the majority of international communications between Europe and the Middle East," reports CNN.

Officials say that the cause behind the severing of the cables remains unknown, but United Arab Emirates’ second largest telecom company said the cables were cut due to ships dragging their anchors.

Is this a pre-cursor to throw a veil over an imminent staged event in the Middle East?

"What are the odds? Who benefits? asks the Crimes and Corruptions blog. "Let’s see. Iranian rapprochement: "Recent months have brought signs of a growing rapprochement between Iran and Egypt."

"What nation would not like this and has subs which could cut the cables? Why do it? Payback as over the net business is badly damaged. Or is this a setup for more? Note the internet is working just fine in Israel."

Over at WhatReallyHappened.com, Mike Rivero points out that the mysterious cable sabotage could portend another imperial Neo-Con crusade in the works.

"The biggest problem the Bush administration faced during Iraq were images coming over the internet that showed the horrors being visited on the Iraqi people, and exposed the government’s lies about Saddam," he writes.

"I am greatly concerned that these undersea cable cuttings are intended to prevent the world from seeing something that is about to happen, other than through the government-controlled propaganda/media."

[judasdisney]

It's ominous. But don't they always do a "dry test run" first to get people off the defensive & acclimated, so that when the real homicide comes (sometimes years later), people are off their guard? If nothing more happens with this, perhaps that should be the most ominous of all.

[Joe Hillshoist]

http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board/viewtopic.php?t=15967

[Iroquois]

I'd bet dollars to doughnuts this has nothing to do with internet access and everything to do with severing some specific private networks, virtual or physical, that ran along those same cables. And, I'd bet that these targeted networks passed or were going to pass financial transactions. slow_dazzle's theory of the specific international financial market that the cuts were intended to sabotage makes good sense.

It seems like a pretty crude tactic for that arena, however. Though, it kind of reminds me of the underground explosions in DC and SF in '05.

http://rigorousintuition.ca/board/viewt ... highlight=

[schadenfreude]

July 2007 Iran asked Japan to pay for its oil purchases in Japanese Yen.

September 2007 Japan's Nippon Oil has agreed to buy Iranian oil using yen.

December 2007 Iran stops accepting U.S. dollars for oil.

January 2008 Iran's Finance Minister Davoud Danesh-Jafari told reporters the bourse will be inaugurated during the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution (February 1-11) at the latest.

and now this:

http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080202/tbs-india-mideast-internet-558302b.html

Sneak attack on Iran, anyone?

[bks]

Again, I'm as happy as anyone here to blame the powers-that-be for dastardly acts, but I see no evidence Iran has been affected. Not a single news story about Iran, just a web site of unknown credibility saying Iran is off line. That same web site says Florida is off line also.

anyone seen a primary news account saying Iran is offline? It's a huge story if true. Something out of Iran, maybe?

http://www.tehrantimes.com/ - appears online

http://pearl.sums.ac.ir/ - appears online

[slow_dazzle]

However, there appears to be a significant upping of the military readiness of both Israel and Russia.

Russia carries out major military exercise

During the exercises, which will run until February 2, Russian pilots are practicing reconnaissance, missile and bomb strikes on an "aggressor force", and are flying simulated air combat and air patrolling missions.

Israel plans for bomb shelters

"The next war will see a massive use of ballistic weapons against the whole of Israeli territory," claimed retired general Udi Shani.

This is probably evidence of the war that won't end in our lifetimes as energy supplies peak and nations scramble to secure supplies. This isn't the dastardly NWO at work because if they were all they are cracked up to be they would have control of the world sewn up long before now. The evidence for a rather inept NWO is there for everyone to see in the debacle that is Iraq. Sure, they are powerful. They sure as hell aren't all powerful.

Whether the cable damage is linked to a wider military strategy I don't know for sure. Circumstantially (if such a word exists) the evidence suggests it might be if we look at the clear evidence of enhanced military activity/preparedness.

The energy supplies are peaking and nations are desperate to grab/secure what's left.

[Byrne]

Some info & links here-
http://postmanpatel.blogspot.com/2008/0 ... -zero.html

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/510132-i ... reak?ln=en

Internet problems continue with fourth cable break
by Dylan Bowman and AFP on Sunday, 03 February 2008
PROBLEMS CONTINUE: A fourth undersea telecoms cable has been damaged between Qatar and the UAE. (Getty Images)Internet services in Qatar have been seriously disrupted because of damage to an undersea telecoms cable linking the Gulf state to the UAE, the fourth such incident in less than a week.

Qatar Telecom (Qtel) said on Sunday the cable was damaged between the Qatari island of Haloul and the UAE island of Das on Friday.

The cause of damage is not yet known, but ArabianBusiness.com has been told unofficially the problem is related to the power system and not the result of a ship's anchor cutting the cable, as is thought to be the case in the other three incidents.


It is expected to take at least "a few days" to fix, according to one person with knowledge of the situation.

The damage caused major problems for internet users in Qatar over the weekend, but Qtel's loss of capacity has been kept below 40% thanks to what the telecom said was a large number of alternative routes for transmission.

It is not yet clear how badly telecom and internet services have been affected in the UAE. Etisalat is expected to release a statement on Monday.

Parts of the Gulf Arab region were plunged into a virtual internet blackout on Wednesday when two undersea cables were cut near Alexandria, on Egypt’s north coast.

The initial breaches were in segments of two intercontinental cables known as Sea-ME-We-4 and Flag Europe-Asia.

The situation was made worse on Friday when Flag, part of India's Reliance Communications, revealed a third cable, Falcon, had also been damaged off the UAE coast.

Etisalat said it does not use the Falcon cable and is therefore unaffected, but the UAE's second telco, Du, warned the damage could hamper its efforts to restore normal service to customers. Etisalat said it is helping Du minimise disruption.

Flag said a repair ship was expected to arrive at the location of the third damaged cable in the next few days, but bad weather has prevented the vessel from setting off from Abu Dhabi port.

The ship is now expected to depart Monday morning and the repairs should take five days.

The third cable is located 56 kilometres from Dubai on a segment between the UAE and Oman.

Etisalat said it had been informed by Flag Telecom, which operates one of the two damaged cables in the Mediterranean Sea, that the problem should be fixed in two weeks, while the operator of the other cable planned to carry out repairs on February 8.

Flag said on Saturday a ship should reach the cable repair ground by February 5.

[Jeff]

Ships did not cause Internet cable damage
(AFP)

3 February 2008

CAIRO - Damage to undersea Internet cables in the Mediterranean that hit business across the Middle East and South Asia was not caused by ships, Egypt’s communications ministry said on Sunday, ruling out earlier reports.

The transport ministry added that footage recorded by onshore video cameras of the location of the cables showed no maritime traffic in the area when the cables were damaged.

‘The ministry’s maritime transport committee reviewed footage covering the period of 12 hours before and 12 hours after the cables were cut and no ships sailed the area,’ a statement said.

‘The area is also marked on maps as a no-go zone and it is therefore ruled out that the damage to the cables was caused by ships,’ the statement added.

Two cables were damaged earlier this week in the Mediterranean sea and another off the coast of Dubai, causing widespread disruption to Internet and international telephone services in Egypt, Gulf Arab states and South Asia.

A fourth cable linking Qatar to the United Arab Emirates was damaged on Sunday causing yet more disruptions, telecommunication provider Qtel said.

Earlier reports said that the damage had been caused by ships that had been diverted off their usual route because of bad weather.

link